Opposition Senators File Bill To Ban Chinese New Year Celebrations In The Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Opposition Senators announced today that they will be filing a joint bill that would ban the celebration of Chinese New Year in the Philippines.

The Senators — Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes and Kiko Pangilinan — said that their proposal is in protest of President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent signed agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping which they claim all but “sell” the Philippines to China.

Chinese New Year has traditionally been a special non-working holiday in the country. The Senators want to scrap the holiday.

However, one Opposition Senator, Franklin Drilon, asked his colleagues to defer the bill until 2020, since the year 2019 in the Chinese Lunar Calendar is the Year of the Pig.